Tuna Salmonella Lawsuit Filed in Boston, MA by National Food Safety Law Firm

A resident of Malden, Massachusetts is fighting a severe Salmonella Bareilly infection as a result of eating a spicy tuna roll that was part of the nationwide outbreak linked to raw tuna scrape imported by Moon Marine USA Corporation. A lawsuit has been filed on that patient’s behalf by Pritzker Hageman Salmonella lawyers in United States District Court, District of Massachusetts, Boston Division (case number 1:12-cv-10819-RGS) against Moon Marine USA.

More than 258 people have been sickened in this outbreak by two bacteria, Salmonella Bareilly and Salmonella Nchanga. The outbreak strain of bacteria has been linked to the raw tuna imported from India called “Nakaochi Scrape” by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), the gold standard in epidemiology. Since these bacteria do not naturally occur in tuna, contamination most likely occurred during processing or shipment.

According to the complaint, the victim ate a spicy tuna roll at the Thelonious Monkfish restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 26, 2012. Two days later, she began to suffer severe gastroenteritis symptoms and sought medical treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital.

A stool sample tested positive for Salmonella Bareilly. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health conducted PFGE tests and found it to be a match to the Salmonella Bareilly outbreak cluster. Since that first positive stool sample, all of her samples have tested positive for Salmonella Bareilly, so she has been unable to legally return to work.

“This outbreak is another example of our inability or unwillingness to monitor foreign food production facilities,” said Fred Pritzker, lead attorney for the firm’s Salmonella lawsuits. “My experience is that outbreaks like this one are caused by poor sanitation measures and inadequate pathogen testing.”

People in the following states have been sickened in this outbreak: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, and Wisconsin.